Do Citigroup Employees Get Free Lunch at Cafe Metro?
According to this article, Citigroup employees just have to say the word “Citigroup” to the cashier and their lunch is covered at the Cafe Metro on Lexington and 46th. The author questions whether or not a company that is being bailed out by the Government should be buying lunches for its employees. I’m more interested to know if we could get free lunch by pretending we work for Citigroup.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 9:00 am, January 14th, 2009 under Cafe Metro, Free Stuff.
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25 Comments
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The discount thing works at my in-building generic deli – you just have to say ‘it’s for upstairs’ and they take off 10% or some such. (Must be 10% b/c my $1.40 bagel becomes $1.26.) I’m sure that’s true in a lot of them but the arrangements and viable code words differ. In any case it’s not really enough of an incentive to try to finagle a discount where you don’t legitimately get one, but it’s worth asking around to find out if it’s a thing in your building – I didn’t learn about until I was in line with a co-worker who knew.
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This is BS. Call-in orders, vouchers, the mighty Seamless Web (lawyers get $25 now for lunch, not $10, sheesh, but only on weekends/holiday)…but not random free offerings.
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We do not have any financial affiliation with Citi Group, We do offer certain customers a discount due to the high employee patronage. There is no free lunch for Citi Group Employees.
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Let’s start with discounts. Most big companies get them. If you don’t…either you are oblivious to your company’s benefits (as 85% of the people I have worked with are), or you just work for too small a damn company and you get nothing. Every single company I have ever worked for has gotten discounts or freebies somewhere (free museum admission with your id badge, discounts to broadway plays, magazine discounts, apple store discounts, the list goes on and on and on). And I have worked for dozens of companies. But then, I always make it my business to find out what I have coming to me. And then use it. Did you know if you worked in the Rockefeller area, there is Rockefeller card you can get from your HR that gives you a nice discount on MOST restaurants and stores in the area? Duh, go to your HR and ask for it. If they don’t have it, ask them to ask for it. It is part of retention of good talent. But then, you aren’t very talented if you didn’t know that your ID badge or the Rock card got you a discount at that place you eat every Monday for the past 10 years.
Without knowing for sure, I am pretty sure Citigroup is not handing out free lunches to everyone in that nearby office at Cafe Metro. I am sure this “journalist” observations and researching abilities may be missing something. If some dude said Citigroup in front of me on line…anyone who knows me knows I would have no qualms with going to the cashier and asking what that was all about, being curious and all.
Now on to free lunches. My boss buys my department lunch when we kick ass or go through hell and back. We would go to the company commissary and give the super secret password and bingo! Free lunch. This code was determined beforehand with the manager and staff of the commissary. And the manager paid for the lunches out of the departmental budget. Obviously our manager is little better at budgeting than the dude in the suit’s manager’s manager, though…because you don’t see my manager asking for millions in bailout money from taxpayers. LOL.
Free lunch is good for morale. My theory in business has always been “a well fed crew is a productive crew”.
So what this astute person writing the article missed was vital facts. Did the suit’s manager just call down and tell them he would pay for whatever the suit ordered? Did the suit pay on his credit card already and just needed to specify the order he already made on the phone? When I get lunch, I almost always call ahead and pay and then just pick it up, stating my name or my company. DUH. Saves time.
No, I don’t believe it. I am a former citi employee. Probably the guy had called ahead and was just picking up his order. I have gotten corporate or university discounts at certain places such as Zeytuna. Sometimes they make me show ID, sometimes now.